Reading my manual I realise that I may have a problem with my alarm/interior monitor system - locking the car (one blip on the remote) causes the little light to flash fast for about 2 seconds, stays on for 30 seconds then flashes every 2 seconds. The manual seems to say that this means there is an error on the interior monitor (the "stays on for 30 seconds" bit) - I hadn't thought anything about it, until now, as it has always done that for the time I have owned the car.

Anyone seen this before, and more importantly know what the likely cause may be? Ironically my car is just out of warranty and I get the feeling my wallet is going to get a right old spanking if I take it to the dealer......

......any advice gratefully received..........

Oh and another (probably stupid) question - should the alarm trigger if movement of the car is detected (eg if someone runs into it)?

Thnaks for the reply Mike!

I had tried the waving the hand inside the car with the windows down and doors locked and nothing happened, so it did seem there was a real problem.

Ended up taking it back to Skoda and £190.58 later it is working properly again - you are right it was the ultrasonic sensor - replacement part £96.22 + VAT and 1 hour labour at £69.50 :eek: + VAT.

My car was only recently out of warranty but the dealership gave me a number to call at Skoda UK to plead my case, and see if they are willing to refund any of the cost. The car has been back to Skoda dealerships several times for different reasons (whilst still under warranty) and they had never noticed there was a fault until I told them. Apparently the problem is they only check for a fault if it is a recall or you have told them there is a specific problem, although your comment about your dealer keeping stock of the sensors as they are known to fail is interesting - the dealer I went to seemed to have no problem finding one either.

If it happens again I will try the connector cleaning trick - it could have saved me £190!! You live and learn

Not had chance to phone Skoda yet but fingers crossed they will be feeling generous..........

Edited 9 May, 200917 yr by Si66

Glad it's sorted out, but I'd be absolutely furious at that labour charge -- it's literally 5 minutes of a job to change that component! :mad:How they've got the nerve to charge you for a full hour is way, way beyond me. It's no more than releasing 2 plastic tags, lowering the sunglasses case or blanking panel, depending which you have, then unplugging the unit!

Seriously, I'd go back to the dealer, and "voice your displeasure......."

Good luck

Mike

Wish my hourly rate was £69.60 and hour, that would be £130k a year!

Will see how I get on with Skoda directly, knowing what I do now if Skoda don't help then I will play hell with the dealership.

Thanks again for your help.

Simon

Hi Si66

This posting got me intrigued, and being the paranoid me, I went out and checked my own Octy. And guess what, the alarm LED was staying on for 30 seconds, same as yours.

Chances are it's the ultrasonic unit that is at fault. My local Skoda dealer keeps a supply of new ultrasonic units in stock, as it is known to be a common item to fail.

You can easily check if this is the problem without VAGCOM by opening the windows, locking the car with the remote, allow time for the alarm LED to settle, then wave your hand inside the car. If the ultrasonic unit is playing up, the alarm won't go off.

I've plugged my Octy in the VAGCOM, and it came up with fault code 01135, no signal from interior monitoring. This has happened before, and I replaced the ultrasonic unit, which is mounted on the roof behind the sunglasses holder/roof console. This time, all I've done is unplug the unit, blow the dust off the connections and put it back together, and the fault code has now gone. Try this before Skoda tell you that you need a new ultrasonic unit at £122 + vat.

If things work out OK for you in this, the alarm light will go back to normal, but you will need either Skoda or a friendly fellow Briskoda member to plug the car into VAGCOM to clear the fault code.

Hope this helps

Mike

Mike, this is incredibly helpful and comes at the perfect time. My car's door LED has been staying on and the alarm has been sounding at random times, in particular just after locking the car (much to the annoyance of the neighbours). I asked for advice on this forum and was directed towards corrosion of the drivers' door loom, but before doing anything I took it to our local independent who diagnosed (with a Bosch diagnosis system) the internal sensor problem that you describe above; and I have just confirmed it with the hand waving trick. The only difference is that the local Skoda dealer quotes £134 plus VAT for the part!

So, could you possibly give me more advice on how to get access to the roof sensor? My car has few gadgets or extras, so the roof console consists of just the interior lights and a plastic box with some slots in it which is presumably where the sensor lives. How do I get into it? Link to picture here:

Cheers,

scandalxk

Wish my hourly rate was £69.60 and hour, that would be £130k a year!

Will see how I get on with Skoda directly, knowing what I do now if Skoda don't help then I will play hell with the dealership.

Thanks again for your help.

Simon

I wouldn't mind betting that there is a minimum one hour labour charge written down somewhere in their terms and conditions, so you might be reduced to asking for a goodwill refund. To be fair, there are a lot of expenses in running a main dealership which are not connected with the mechanic's time. Even so, £69.60 an hour is steep, and an independent garage might not have charged for the labour at all!

scandalxk

As promised, here are a couple of piccies of the offending ultrasonic unit.

To get to it, open the sunglasses holder, and gently ease the 2 plastic tags at the sides inwards whilst pulling the whole unit from the roof. If you haven't got a glasses holder, the plain plastic cover just pulls out.

The black ultrasonic unit simply clips into the plastic trim -- the 2 screws you can see only hold the 2 bits of the ultrasonic unit together, so don't undo these.

Simply pull the unit free of the trim, blow any dust away from the 3 sensors, and clean the connectors on the plug.

Clip the unit back into the trim, and simply clip the trim back into the headlining. Dead easy, and free of charge to try!

If it doesn't work, then it's disappointing, and there's nothing lost :rotz:, but if things start working again, then its £150-£200 THAT YOU'VE SAVED:D

Hope this helps

Mike

Cheers Mike, the pictures are a great help

I will know for next time!!

This thread is interesting- my Leon (and others according to SCN) has an intermittent communication loss error logged against the interior monitors. Seems it's very common.

Mike, you are a star - the job was easy, the little red light has gone out, and the alarm is not sounding. I would say 95% successful...and if the alarm doesn't go off any time tonight, then 100% successful! Many thanks indeed.

Edited to add: I meant to mention that when I took the sensor unit out I found there was a yellow sticker on the back which blanks off some holes in the casing. The sticker had come unstuck and peeled away from the sensor, so the holes were no longer blanked off. I refixed the sticker with some duck tape. The car is black so it must get hot up there, which perhaps explains why the sticker came off. I have no idea whether this had any bearing on the problem...but fixing it didn't do any harm!

Edited again to add: D'oh! Spoke too soon. Alarm went off again when I locked the car the next time I used it. Next, I think I'll be looking for a replacement sensor from a breaker's yard.

As a matter of interest, does the Octy with factory alarm/ultrasonics etc have an inclination sensor fitted, or is that extra to the alarm???

If so, is the inclination sensor part of the ultrasonic unit?:confused:

I think that the inclination sensor is an optional extra. In the manual it describes the little switch at the bottom of the door pillar where you can switch off the internal sensor if you leave a dog or a child in the locked car. The picture in the manual shows a double switch which allows you to switch off the inclination sensor as well. However, on my car it's a single switch just for the interior sensor. So I guess that the inclination sensor is extra.

Thanks again Mike.

scandalxk

Edited 9 May, 200917 yr by scandalxk

Mike, this is incredibly helpful and comes at the perfect time. My car's door LED has been staying on and the alarm has been sounding at random times, in particular just after locking the car (much to the annoyance of the neighbours). I asked for advice on this forum and was directed towards corrosion of the drivers' door loom, but before doing anything I took it to our local independent who diagnosed (with a Bosch diagnosis system) the internal sensor problem that you describe above; and I have just confirmed it with the hand waving trick. The only difference is that the local Skoda dealer quotes £134 plus VAT for the part!

So, could you possibly give me more advice on how to get access to the roof sensor? My car has few gadgets or extras, so the roof console consists of just the interior lights and a plastic box with some slots in it which is presumably where the sensor lives. How do I get into it? Link to picture here:

Cheers,

scandalxk

As you mentioned water ingress, this is why I mentioned the door loom. I now think this was a guess on your part? If you are getting water in the car, then I stand by the door loom statement. This would show as an alarm sensor fault - being the door convenience unit thinking the car has been opened due to a corroded contact on the connecting loom.

As you mentioned water ingress, this is why I mentioned the door loom. I now think this was a guess on your part? If you are getting water in the car, then I stand by the door loom statement. This would show as an alarm sensor fault - being the door convenience unit thinking the car has been opened due to a corroded contact on the connecting loom.

That's right, it was a guess because of the poor weather which co-incided with the start of the problem. Fiddling with the interior sensor has certainly helped, because the red light on the door no longer stays on when I lock the car and, if I lock the doors with the window open and then reach in and wave, the alarm sounds - which it didn't previously. So one problem has been cured.

On the other hand the alarm still sounds when it shouldn't. Wouldn't it be sod's law if I had two problems at the same time, and that there is also corrosion in the door loom? But if there is, it didn't show up on the diagnostic.

scandalxk

Yup, seen a few people with 2006 mk2's with it here.

Sorry to resurrect the thread several months on, but is it just a matter of changing the sensor unit, or do you need to do any computer trickery when changing the internal sensor?

I've already taken mine out, given it a good blow/clean and it's still dodgy.

Shame it took mine getting broken into before I realised that the interior motion sensor wasn't working, so didn't put the t@sser off from going into the car !

Shame it took mine getting broken into before I realised that the interior motion sensor wasn't working, so didn't put the t@sser off from going into the car !

Excellent advice in this thread guys - thanks. I'll try the interior ultrasonic sensor job.

If that fails to cure my crazy alarm with a mind of its own - I'll take the fuse out again ! That stops it !! and keeps the neighbours happy.

thanks for a fantastic thread.

Had the Interior Monitoring Sensor fault come up on my Octy, and then noticed the solid red light for 30secs when locking.

Unclipped the housing, disconnected the wiring plug from the ultrasonic unit... blew the dust off, cleaned the pins with a cotton bud soaked in isopropyl alcohol, plugged it back together and hey presto - the alarm works!

Hmmm, thought it had this interior sensor issue, my alarm led has been staying on for 30 seconds after locking. Have just been out and cleaned the connections (thanks for the guide Mike) but the led is still staying in for 30 secs. However, leaving a window open and waving my arm around inside causes the hazard lights to come on, but no siren sounds...

Reckon this might mean it's actually my siren that's buggered rather than the sensors?

I was reading the manual for my new (to me) VRS over the weekend and it does state that the alarm module has a 6 year life. I suspect that is due to the rechargeable batteries that are installed in it. There have been a number of users with failures on the A3 on ASN forum.

Paul

I was reading the manual for my new (to me) VRS over the weekend and it does state that the alarm module has a 6 year life. I suspect that is due to the rechargeable batteries that are installed in it. There have been a number of users with failures on the A3 on ASN forum.

Paul

Well my car's just passed its 6th year so that would tally...

From Blue's post in this thread: http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/219447-alarm-no-longer-beeps-when-activating/#entry2585850

looks like 1K0951605C is the latest part number, ebay throws up a few reasonably-priced: http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=1K0951605C&LH_PrefLoc=2

Just done the blowing the interior motion sensor fix on my touran. And can confirm I now have interior motion alarm now. Many thanks

I've just tried to get to my motion sensor unit and can't budge it. I opened the sunglasses holder, prised the two plastic tabs as shown in the picture (very difficult for me) with a screwdriver at the bottom of the tab but the whole plastic unit seems firmly attached to the roof!

I wonder if the design has changed at all or if someone can give me a hint as to what could be wrong.

Thank you for the pictures Mike, very useful.

After seeing this I checked mine and it too is not sounding with windows down. Have done as suggested but no luck :-( can a replacement be purchased from anywhere other than a dealer? If so where and how much

just come across this thread as mine was playing up, Took it out cleaned it, Cleared the code and spot on, Work now, Thanks for the write up on here guys, Saved me money again :clap:  :clap:

mikeholroyd

 

Great pics and great idea it took a bloody while to get the damn thing down! Those clips are very springy indeed and the best way it to bend one out with a small flat head then insert a thin pocket knife under the clip then you can give a tug downwards viola one side down second to go using the same technique. Have taken cleaned conatcts with contact cleaner, reset the code waved a hand and neighbours weren't very happy as repeated this three times 

 

Thank you very much great how to!

Just tested this, and after a clean it's now working fine.

Yet another vote of thanks Mike.

Neighbours may be round later - its Sunday morning.

Brilliant guide. Helped me massively today and fixed my problem and saved me money by simply blowing on the sensors and circuit board and re sticking the yellow sticker on.

Sorry for bumping an old thread